Photo by Lauren Florence The St. Clairsville boys’ basketball team defeated East Liverpool, 60-58, Saturday night inside the ECO Center in the Buckeye 8 championship game. Pictured with their trophy are, front row from left, are manager Jace Tuttle, Matheson King, Kaden Clifford, managers Cam Clifford and Leo Clifford, Ollie Muhly and Gage Wolfe. Back row, from left are, student manager Rowan Rine, head coach Ryan Clifford, Derrick Panepucci, Drew Gasber, Tyson Pastor, Brady Scxhafer (with trophy), Griffin Straub, Griffin Pastor, Luke Schafer, Kambel Sall and assistant coaches Eric Gay and Kevin Sacco. It’s the Red Devils first Buckeye 8 boys title since 2021 and the program’s ninth overall.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Whenever East Liverpool and St. Clairsville get together in boys’ basketball action there are a few certain guarantees. First, both teams will leave everything on the court and, secondly, they must be playing for some type of trophy.

Both came into play inside a packed ECO Center Saturday night as the Red Devils, the No. 1 seed in the South Division, hosted the Potters, the top team in the North for all the marbles.

When the back-and-forth action came to a close after 32 hard-fought minutes, St. Clairsville (11-3) emerged with its first conference championship since 2021 with a 60-58 decision.

“People probably won’t believe this, but Coach Reynolds and I texted back and forth this morning about tonight’s game,” St. Clairsville head coach Ryan Clifford said. “It’s always for something and it’s always a heck of a game. Tonight was no different. They are a really good basketball team and every time we see them on the other bench, we know it’s a big game.”

The tightly contested game was deadlocked six times and saw the lead change hands on 11 occasions. The Red Devils held leads of nine twice in the first half and the teams were never more than six points apart in the final 16 minutes.

“I knew when we were up by nine that the game was far from over,” Clifford said. “We knew they were going to make a comeback, and they did, but I’m most proud of how we rebounded at the end of the game. They hurt us on the boards for most of the night, but when we needed them late, we got them.”

Knotted for the final time at 48 after Griffin Straub buried a jumper from the right corner early in the fourth quarter, St. Clairsville got the ball back and Gage Wolfe was fouled driving to the basket. The senior calmly tickled the twine on both attempts for his only two points of the game and a 50-48 lead the designated hosts would never relinquish.

Moments later, Straub cashed in two charity tosses for a 52-48 advantage. The rivals would exchange baskets before Owen Fredritz scored on a backdoor layup to pull the Potters to within 54-52.

Straub scored on a twisting drive to the basket for a 56-52 reading and Clifford immediately called timeout. Following a missed shot by East Liverpool, Brady Schafer seemed to be trapped by a pair of Potters in the right corner, but the senior spun away and coasted in for an uncontested layup to make it 56-52.

Fredritz connected for three from the right wing with 52 seconds left to make it 56-55 and the Red Devils turned the ball over while trying to run time off the clock with 20 seconds remaining. However, East Liverpool misfired on a three and Tyson Pastor collected the rebound before being fouled with 13.1 on the clock. The Red Devils were called for a lane violation prior to the first attempt, but the senior calmly knocked down the second attempt for a 59-55 lead as Clifford once again called timeout.

Nate Birch kept the Potters hopes alive with a three from deep on the right wing, making it 59-58, as Reynolds called timeout with 5.8 left. Pastor was fouled with three ticks remaining and, after missing the first shot, buried the second for a 60-58 margin.

St. Clairsville, with fouls to give before East Liverpool reached the two-shot bonus, immediately fouled on the inbounds pass and Reynolds called his final timeout to set up a last-ditch effort.

Cohen Pease took the pass, wheeled and heaved the ball from near midcourt that was off the mark.

“It always seems to come down to the wire between us two,” East Liverpool head coach Kade Reynolds said. “It came down to whoever was going to have the last two possessions. They are a well-coached team.”

The narrow victory was St. Clairsville’s second this season over East Liverpool (11-5) as it handed the Potters their first loss of the season, 68-64, in mid-December on John Jenkins Court. With the Red Devils No. 1 in the OVAC Class 4A race and the Potters No. 2, it’s not too unlikely that they will meet again this season.

Straub and Pastor each scored 20 points to lead St. Clairsville. Schafer added 14, with 12 coming in the second half. Straub also collected eight rebounds and swatted three shots to earn MVP honors for his team.

“I was hitting a lot of shots during warmups, so I said why not shoot it early on,” Straub said as he netted 12 of his points in the first quarter. “The Ferry game (a loss on Thursday) was a tough game for all of us. It was nice to see that we were able to get off to a good start and get a good victory.”

East Liverpool, which played without 6-5 senior D’shawn Kirby who was on an NCAA Division I football recruiting trip to UMass, was led by Blake Adkins with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds, of which eight came off the offensive glass. He was the Potters’ MVP.

“It really hurt not having a big guy tonight,” Reynolds said of Kirby who averages a double-double. “Our kids stepped up and played great. There were a couple of things that didn’t go our way and we didn’t get the outcome we wanted.”

Pease and Birch had 12 each and Fredritz eight.